Warps are the centerpiece of 2D+ previews and impressive headlines. In Printess everything can get warped, stretched and distorted while staying adjustable and personalizable. In this example, we have used our magic Mesh Warp. This wrap lets you apply the texture of a crumpling pillow to whatever area you’d like on a surface. We’ve added a Single Line text feature to the frame containing the frog image.
Every warp has Transformer icons (as seen below) that set on which feature of a frame a warp should be applied. In this case, we activated the Text and the Image icons.
The Mesh is thus applied to both the image (Printess frog) and the text (Julia):
Text position is very important for ensuring professional looking outcomes. That’s why we’ve added the Text Alignment settings for Single Line texts directly to the bottom of the Warp tab. If something does not look as intended, merely adjust the alignment settings until perfection has been achieved.
If a frame has any warps enabled, the Wrap icon in the features panel will stay magenta to indicate this. Warp effects can be integrated into near-infinite combinations, so try not to get lost while experimenting!
Perspective transformation gives you instant depth. Click the Close Editor button or press Esc to switch back to normal view.
Mesh is ideal to apply text and graphics onto uneven surfaces. You can also adjust the number of needed rows and columns, creating more adjustable intersect points, at any time.
With the Smooth Curves option switched on, Printess uses a smoother interpolation between the mesh points, which usually gives a more natural result on organic surfaces.
Tip: Mesh calculation speed is significantly higher when keeping all mesh points inside the Frame.
While adjusting the grid you can select any point in the grid and press the R key to select a complete row of points or C for a complete column. Click the Close Editor button or press Esc to switch back to normal view. You can continue to edit the grid at any time by clicking 
.
Point Catch Radius
You can define a radius around the point you would like to move.
If you set it to “1” you can only move the single point you have selected.
The larger you define the Point Catch Radius the more surrounding points are moved as well.
Notice: When using Single Line text with a Stroke in conjunction with Mesh Warp, it is required to add paddings that are larger than the stroke width to ensure the stroke is not cut off.
Cylinder wraps a design around a round object, such as a mug, can, bottle, or tin, and creates a realistic perspective.
It is not a separate warp. It is a generator within the Mesh Warp. It automatically creates the complete mesh grid based on a few settings, so you do not have to adjust many control points manually.
Why not just bend a mesh by hand? A simple four-corner grid with a curve added to it cannot do three things. On a real cylinder, the columns are not spaced evenly — the design gets squeezed near the edges and stretched in the middle. The band also gets narrower near its edges, because the edges are farther away from the camera than the middle. And the top and bottom edges curve by different amounts, because both bend toward the camera’s eye level. This uneven spacing is exactly what makes a warped design look like it was printed on the object, not just pasted on top — and no simple four-corner grid can create that effect on its own.
Before you turn on the Wrap Around Cylinder feature, think about three things:
The SubDocument you place should be one third wider than the printable area of the cylinder.
Scale the SubDocument to the height of the printable area.
Place the SubDocument in the center of the printing area.
Now switch Mesh on and the Mesh panel shows a Wrap Around Cylinder button.
Press it and the flat grid becomes a cylinder projection, with Smooth Curves switched on for you — a round body interpolated with straight segments puts creases into the design exactly where the curvature is.
Do not squeeze the SubDocument manually. Use the available Cylinder Wrap Parameters to fit it into the printing area.
With the Cylinder Wrap Parameters Left and Right you can transform the SubDocument’s width to match the printing area.
Use Camera Height and Camera Distance to match the SubDocument to the viewing angle of the object you want to print on.
Left, Right, Top, Bottom mark the printable band inside the frame, in percent. They start at 0, 100, 0 and 100 — the whole frame — because the frame already is the print area - you sized it to the band when you placed it. Inset them only to hold the design back from an edge of its own frame.
Wrap (degrees) is how much of the circumference the design covers. Default 140°.
Camera Height is where the lens sat, in band heights above the middle of the band. Default -0.35, a body seen slightly from above, which is how a product shot is normally taken. At -0.5 the eye is exactly on the top rim and that rim comes out straight.
Camera Distance is how far the camera stands off, measured in radii of the body. Default 6. Large values approach an orthographic view: still sine-spaced columns, but straight rims and no shrink towards the edges.
Columns and Rows set the grid resolution — 9 × 5 to start with. More columns buy accuracy across the curve, at the cost of mesh calculation speed.
Set Camera Height first. It decides how the two rims curve against each other, which is the part of the projection an eye picks up immediately. Match it to the photo before touching anything else.
Camera Distance limits Wrap. Only what is in front of the silhouette can be seen at all, so from close up the wrap stops taking effect well before 180°. From 1.2 radii away only about 67° of a body is visible however far the design is wrapped; from the 6 radii a product shot is normally taken at, 160° are. If raising Wrap changes nothing, raise Camera Distance.
The generated points stay editable — click Edit Grid and move them like any other mesh. But touching a slider again rebuilds the whole grid from the numbers, exactly as changing a star’s corner count rebuilds the star, so hand edits made before that are lost. Get the sliders right first, then correct by hand.
Changing Columns or Rows keeps the cylinder and re-lays the grid over it, so the sliders survive a resolution change.
Dragging a slider opens the grid editor and previews the new grid there, with the warp itself following the moment you let go — a full mesh transform of a bitmap at every tick of a drag is the one thing a drag cannot afford. Typing an exact value into a box instead commits straight away and shows the finished warp.
Reset To Flat Grid returns the mesh to an undistorted grid. The frame keeps its Mesh warp; the Cylinder sliders disappear with the projection.
Distortion provides a wave-like transformation.
Frequency determines the number of waves present.
Octave provides an additional sub-frequency.
Scale sets the overall amplification of the warp.
The Arch transformation puts your design into a circle with a variable slice bending upwards or downwards.
Angle is used to control the slice and whether to bend upward or downward.
Position (Inner, Outer) controls inside or outside bending.
Mirror - Mirrors the direction.
Pit projection is used to mimic a round wall with perspective. Pit thereby offers three modes of distortion (Upper, Lower and Squeeze distortions). This Warp is especially sensitive to text positioning.
Upper - Positioning of the top text is recommended.
Lower - The vertical text alignment should be set to the bottom baseline.
Squeeze - Works best with centered text.
Height Fraction - Amplifies the height of the Pit.
Arc projects on top of a sphere/half shell.
Arc offers three modes: upper, lower & bulge.
Height Fraction - Amplifies the height of the selected Arc mode.
The Flag Warp applies a vertical sin-wave translation.
Wave Count - Controls the number of full waves.
Phase Shift - Shifts the wave.
Height Fraction - Sets the wave amplitude.
The Fish Warp is a sin-wave scaling.
Wave Count - Control the number of waves.
Height Fraction - Sets the amplitude.
The custom warp allows users to warp the top of the frame with a different formula than the bottom. Choose from Sin, Cos, Parabolic, Inverse Parabolic, set the Phase Shift and Wave Count (for Sin, Cos). Set the Height Fraction for amplitude. These parameters can be independently defined for the top and bottom of a frame, thus giving one a huge variety of options for the final appearance.
